UEM

Music:

Member Since: 11/3/2006
Band Website: urbanelectronicmusic.com
Band Members:

William Harrington laptop loops, soprano sax, keys

Andy Sykora percussion, electronics, vox

Friends and Collaborators:

Jilli Dart electric guitar, effects, loops
Seth Kasselman electric guitar, clarinet, vox, loops
Marc Levinthal electric guitar, loops

Louis & Bebe Barron, John Cage, Captain Beefheart, Lol Coxhill, Ron Geesin, Pierre Henry, King Crimson, Cliff Martinez, Conlon Nancarrow, Pink Floyd, Krsystof Penderecki, Harry Partch, Soft Machine, Karlhienz Stockhausen, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Wolf Eyes, Frank Zappa

UEM Messenger Bag
Originaly design.
Available only on line. :

$22.99 :

HARRINGTON: noise noise

Noise, electronics, chaos, disorder - yet somehow beautiful.

UEM: Ubiquitous Empty Motion

UEM's first EP on Dutch the WEB label, Dadaist Audio. Download it for FREE, here:

Ubiquitous Empty Motion

WILLIAM C HARRINGTON: Urban Electronic Music

Urban Electronic Music was constructed using loops recorded over a 30-year period, analog and digital synthesis, as well as traditional instruments and found objects.

"I'm not what you’d call a “big-city” person. So when the Angry Vegan Records release “Urban Electronic Music” by William C. Harrington arrived, you’ll have to understand that the title didn’t conjure a whole lot of positive images for me. In my limited experience, “urban” is too many people, too little privacy, not enough green – all the best excuses to live somewhere less intense. “Urban” is somewhere I’d visit, but wouldn’t want to stay.

If Harrington’s intent is to capture this feeling, I think he does it well. Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying the album quite a bit. It’s a fascinating trip to take! Like any good-sized city, Harrington has populated his album with a diverse set of voices – Arp 2600, E-mu Classic, and VK-7 keys clamor for attention alongside bowed guitar, cell phones, loops, saxophone, salad bowls, and a host of other unlikely objects. Within many tracks, like “I Slept Through Vespers” or “Cuckoo to You,” distinct sound events play a lesser role; with more of a blended, futuristic, electroacoustic feel. However, some tracks, like “One for Nick,” sound dated– I had some similar synth percussion presets on my old Casio – but isn’t part of the “urban” experience the contrast and layering of old and new? Would a city like St. Louis or Chicago (or Memphis!) retain any of its flavor if it stayed “updated” all the time? Oddly enough; one track on the album, “Enola Gay,” really is dated– 1973, to be precise– but fits so well you won’t suspect a thing.

“Remnants” seems to best reflect this layering, with Harrington providing a real hubbub of activity. This track best reflects the vibrant “aliveness” present in a city like New York, where the pattern and activity of the city itself seems to take on a life of its own. For a one-man album (composed, realized, produced, and engineered by Harrington) it’s a marvelous accomplishment."

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 23rd, 2006 at 8:58 pm and is filed under reviews , music review , experimental music , electroacoustic . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site.

DaveX
http://startlingmoniker.wordpress.com/

UEM: Code

Improvisations with acoustic (voice, percussion) and electronic (synth, laptop, circuit bent toys) instruments.

Recorded at Dangerous Curve in downtown Los Angeles. With Andy Sykora, Will Harrington, and Jilli Dart

WILLIAM C HARRINGTON: UEM Live

Experimental sample based electronic art music with beats and and acoustic improvs performed live.

"...this 14 track live recording of his performance at Nova Express, in LA, in Sept 2006 with special guest Jilli Dart of spacekitti. This free CD features him on soprano sax and electronics and Jilli on guitar, sitar and effects and travels the corridors of improvised experimental/electronic, spacing from drones to noise, occasionally pointing in the direction of more rhythmically-defined patterns and flirting with some weird free-form of obscure guitar-impregnated idm. Keep an eye on UEM as I feel they'll have more in store for us pretty soon."

Marc Urselli
http://www.chaindlk.com/reviews

Your Imaginary Friend
Reviewed 2007-02-07

Kick ass experimental analog loops and drones and collage, compiled from 30 years of tapes, found sounds and sources, and traditional instruments. For fans of Eno, NON, Reich, Cage, electronic music (by its traditional definition), even tribal King Crimson. This guy must be in his 50’s or more, having been involved in music for a long time, serving as Zappa’s keyboard tech amongst other high profile gigs, studying composition and electronic music with notable way back. Hard to believe the liner notes when it says this is his first CD. Recorded live, this is really one long track split into many tracks with distinct flavors and themes. Well done. My picks: 2, 7, 8. FCC clean.

1) chorus of feedback, tasteful and somehow melodic
2) a nice drone, a crunchy tape loop, and echo’ed trumpet cant go wrong
3) clarinet and other horns become more apparent, tape loops and noise grow bold
4) flute and racket, still looping hypnotically
5) mechanical somehow, robotic voice buried at times
6) briefer, like a computer on a space station
7) a lovely drone starts this and evolves nicely, staying chill and narcotic until end where moog tones appear
8) an eastern tabla flavor to this, cool
9) a little more electronic but incorporates some treated guitar
10) developing a definite rhythm, tribal but not trite, still on a foundation of excellent drony noise
11) beat continues, less rhythmic, cool looping guitar Frippish guitar work
12) brief, dominated by feedback and a square wave
13) guitar feedback symphony again, like in intro reminds me of tones The Residents used a lot in their early days (“on any other street”), midway loops like crashing and falling appear, at end theres some backward voice sample
14) classic Tomita’esque analog synth sequence, trippy and composed, pretty actually

stanford.edu

WILLIAM C HARRINGTON: Nuclear Menace

Ambient, electronic, experimental. A combination of studio, live, and field recordings. Abstract electronics and free jazz.

Wm Harrington's latest solo recording. Recently featured on The Audition Booth, with Martin Perlich on KCSN fm.

William C. Harrington
Nuclear Menace
Tanatone CD

Keyboard tech for Gentle Giant and Zappa, briefly appearing in the Baby Snakes vid, this guy has street cred and his third release was mastered by Scott Fraser, who issued the impressive Natural Histories before working with Kronos Quartet. Merely by those facts, though, the CD mightn’t be what you’d expect. A cross between Craig Leon, John Wiggins, Conrad Schnitzler, and Bill Nelson’s later output, the disc is a cross-blend of pastiches, noodling, and melodic miniatures with no narrative threadline nor even a seeming wisp of intent but plenty of aesthetic pleasures, from stripped obliquities (“Syd”) to a Riley-esque Arabian mosaic (“Rajilli: They Have the Bomb Too”) to loopy experiments (“The Long Descent”). The rather abrupt shifts in setting can be a trifle disconcerting, but one can’t help but feel it was part of the plan, instilling an intermittent sense of sensory alienation and dislocation. Synths comprise the majority or voices but Harrington also plays sax and guitar while inviting several guests in. The longest of the 15 cuts are just seconds over five minutes but “The finally Did It” and several others prick the desire for much lengthier extrapolations. Nothing is demanding but repeated listens begin to unfold subtleties not immediately graspable. However, don’t invite the neighbors over for the sound test, as they mightn’t understand, never having quite understood why you insisted on blasting the soundtrack to Forbidden Planet at midnight last week. Mark S. Tucker

Signal To Noise issue 47 : fall 2007

You can also download any CD or track from iTunes by clicking the links below:

Nuclear Menace

Urban Electronic Music
UEM Live
Code